1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an analyzer for testing the quality of high frequency digital signals. More particularly, the present invention relates to an eye pattern analyzer for assessing the integrity of the high data rate signals at the physical layer of a network.
2. Related Art
Fueled by the growth of the internet, Next Generation Networks (NGN) are being rapidly deployed to keep up with the demands of multimedia and high-speed data communications.
Eye patterns or eye diagrams are invaluable tools in accessing the integrity of high data rate signals at the physical layer of the network. The eye pattern is formed by superimposed zeros and ones of a digital signal. The characteristics of the eye pattern can be analyzed statistically to determine signal quality.
Eye pattern measurements can be done with an oscilloscope combined with other components. To generate a single eye pattern of a high speed signal with an oscilloscope, one would need to configure an oscilloscope chassis with the proper electrical sampling head module as well as an Optical-to-Electrical (O/E) conversion module, or a Clock Recovery Unit (CRU) module if necessary, and processing equipment to perform a statistical analysis. The resulting setup is costly, bulky, and complex.
Eye pattern measurements can also be made with complex time sampling oscilloscopes such as the Agilent 86100 DCA or Tektronix DSA8200 which are highly configurable and sophisticated instruments. Furthermore, specialized equipment such as the BertScope from SyntheSys Research can be used. These instruments tend to be sophisticated, expensive, heavy, bulky, and don't lend themselves to ease of use or portability.
Thus, it is desirable to provide an eye pattern analyzer for assessing the integrity of data that offers advantages over either a standard sampling oscilloscope, or a sophisticated eye pattern analyzer instrument.